Industrial meets arboreal in this glassy contemporary home, hidden away on nearly 16 acres of wooded property in Dickinson, TX. Steel-framed window walls offer views of the forest outside throughout the 2-bedroom home, from the entryway to the master bedroom and bath (above). Polished concrete masonry and partition walls divvy up the mostly-open 3,700-sq.-ft. floor plan. The $1.6-million home and its woody buffer zone are set about half a mile east of the Gulf Freeway:

After more than 2 decades of abandonment, the Melrose Building at 1121 Walker is getting some TLC: a total makeover as part of conversion of the building to a Le Meridien hotel. Permits were issued the week of Thanksgiving to begin a complete overhaul of the interior; the exterior will receive an update as well.

The remodel will attempt to restore the youthful good looks of Houston’s oldest Modern skyscraper — as shown in the rendering below, the renovation will bring back the building’s original color scheme:

This sprawling $2.35 million 13-acre estate sits on the left bank of a Dickinson Bayou tributary, across from that little shopping district with the steakhouse and the barber shop and the Dairy Queen. Past the gatekeeper’s cottage, you’ll find this 6-bedroom 2-story stucco home on the site, deep into a landscape of Spanish moss-draped oaks and crape myrtles. The home and its well-paneled interior dates to 1933, though a few of the interior floor coverings look like they might be a bit more recent:

The company behind the Houston Premium Outlets way up off 290 near Fairfield in Cypress has announced plans to build a similar outlet mall on the opposite side of Houston. Simon Property Group, also the owner of the Houston Galleria and the Katy Mills Mall, plans on calling the new 100-store, 350,000-sq.-ft. complex the Galveston Premium Outlets, but it’ll be located well north of the island in Texas City, just south of the Holland Rd. exit off I-45 and north of the Walmart Supercenter, on the west side of the freeway. From the drawing the company is passing around, the place should look a whole lot like its Cypress cousin, logo-tattooed tower and all.

The site is a 55-acre chunk of the stalled and probably flopped Lago Mar, a 7,000-home development announced 6 years ago.
The Galveston County Daily News‘s Laura Elder reports there are rumors another outlet mall is coming to the area as well, a couple of exits north on a 20-acre lot north of Cross Colony Dr. and west of FM 646 in Dickinson — this one from another national mall developer: Tanger Outlet Centers.

Looks like the barn door’s closing on this one. . . . Do we have a winner of the prizes from this week’s sponsor: the HIWI: Ike book, the original Houston. It’s Worth It. book? The “Hunkered Down” stencil kit?

Hey, what happened to Monday? Swamplot spent most of it fighting off a few tech demons. But hey, here’s some news!

Opened: The new and expanded Children’s Museum had its grand opening this weekend. Now twice its original size, the 90,000 sq. ft. museum features exhibits of children in various states of play. Also inside: an expanded branch of the Houston Public Library.

Opening: Backe’s Bullpen, a fine drinking establishment in Dickinson, will open with the backing of Astros pitcher Brandon Backe, reports the Galveston Daily News‘s Laura Elder. Last October, Backe was arrested after a run-in with police at a Galveston bar.